1960: Nuclear fireFlames rip through a defense missile-launching site on Fort Dix property, creating fear of an atomic blast and leaving a radioactive plume in the water below.1961: The first robotWithout public notice, the first industrial robot starts work molding door handles at the GM plant in Ewing. Before long, they're handling the most dangerous assembly-line jobs here and in Japan.

1962: Babe Ruth baseballA bunch of teenagers on Trenton's youth baseball team become heroes for life by winning the league's world series.

1963: Civil rights marchA generation of blacks from Trenton take inspiration from the immortal speech of Martin Luther King, and are heartened to launch protests of their own here in the capital city.

1966: Vietnam hits homeMilitary cars start showing up in the neighborhood, and people come to know it means a son has been killed in Southeast Asia. By war's end, it happens 246 times in Greater Trenton.

1967: Twin RiversConceived a self-sufficient town, the "garden city" in East Windsor is born with passage of New Jersey's landmark Planned Unit Development act.

1968: Trenton aflameThe infamous riots that followed Martin Luther King's assassination tear the city apart, leave a divinity student dead and kill off downtown as a viable business center.

1969: Princeton's first womenA musty old tradition is broken when the unversity becomes a coed school. Some of the first female students are university leaders today.